RFE/RL Armenian Report – 04/29/2018

                                        Sunday, 

Armenian Parliament Majority ‘Won’t Block’ Opposition Candidate For PM

• Tatevik Lazarian

Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia at a parliament 
session in Yerevan 28 February 2018.

A leading member of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) said on Sunday 
that it will not try to prevent a joint candidate of the three other 
parliamentary forces from becoming the country’s new prime minister.

Vahram Baghdasarian, who leads the HHK faction in the parliament, made this 
clear after meeting with opposition leader Nikol Pashinian, the main organizer 
of nationwide protests that have led to the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh 
Sarkisian.

“If the three other political forces represented in the National Assembly have 
a joint candidate … we will not block the candidate whom they will call the 
people’s candidate,” Baghdasarian told reporters. HHK deputies will not boycott 
Tuesday’s session of the parliament which is due to elect the next premier, he 
said.

Pashinian said he received the same assurances from Baghdasarian at their 
meeting. He said the HHK faction, which controls 58 of the 105 parliament 
seats, is “predisposed” towards letting him become prime minister.

The position announced by Baghdasarian still needs to be formalized by the 
largest parliamentary faction. Pashinian said that he will meet with HHK 
lawmakers later in the day or Monday.

Pashinian’s candidacy has been endorsed not only by his Yelk alliance but also 
Gagik Tsarukian’s bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation 
(Dashnaktsutyun). The three forces hold a total of 47 parliament seats, meaning 
that the opposition leader needs to be also backed by at least six HHK 
parliamentarians if he is to succeed Sarkisian as prime minister.

Pashinian reaffirmed on Saturday his desire to serve as interim prime minister 
who would organize fresh general elections. But he said he is ready to discuss 
possible dates for such polls with the HHK and the other parliamentary forces.

The 42-year-old again declined to shed light on the composition of his would-be 
cabinet. He said only that once in office he will be striving for an 
“atmosphere of national accord and solidarity.”




Pashinian Confident About Becoming Armenian PM

• Emil Danielyan

Armenia - Supporters of opposition leader Nikol Pashinian block a street in 
downtown Yerevan, .

Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian sounded confident on Sunday about his chances 
of becoming Armenia’s prime minister after more than two weeks of massive 
anti-government protests organized by him.

Pashinian said there is now a “very high likelihood” that “at least some 
deputies” from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) will vote for him 
when the National Assembly picks the next premier on Tuesday.

“This means that we have a great opportunity to turn our de facto victory into 
a de jure victory, which in turn means that our candidate will be elected prime 
minister,” he told thousands of supporters that again rallied in Yerevan’s 
central Republic Square.

“I am prepared to take up the post of Armenia’s prime minister in a responsible 
manner,” he declared.

Pashinian addressed the crowd hours after meeting with Vahram Baghdasarian, the 
leader of the HHK’s parliamentary faction, the largest in the National 
Assembly. Baghdasarian said after the meeting that he and other HHK lawmakers 
will not “block” Pashinian’s candidacy if it is formally nominated by the three 
other political forces represented in the parliament.

The opposition Yelk alliance, the Tsarukian Bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary 
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) have already endorsed Pashinian for the country’s 
top executive post. They control 47 parliament seats between them, compared 
with 58 seats held by the HHK.


Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian is hugged by a supporter during a 
rally in Yerevan, .

The HHK faction is due to officially announce its position on the next premier 
after meeting with Pashinian on Monday. The latter said his supporters should 
therefore stop blocking streets and roads or taking other “civil disobedience” 
actions until he reports the results of the planned meeting to them next 
evening.

But he also cautioned: “This is not yet the end of the story and we must not 
lose our vigilance.”

Earlier in the day, Pashinian also met with a visiting delegation of Russian 
parliamentarians headed by Leonid Kalashnikov, chairman of a State Duma 
committee on relations with former Soviet republics. He said the meeting took 
place in a “very warm atmosphere” and that its participants came away from it 
as “friends.” Russian-Armenian relations will only deepen further as a result 
of regime change in Yerevan, he added.

During his unprecedented campaign, Pashinian has repeatedly stated that he is 
not planning any major change of Armenian foreign policy. In particular, he has 
ruled out Armenia’s withdrawal from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty 
Organization (CSTO) and Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

Pashinian opposed Armenia’s membership in the EEU as recently as in October 
last year, saying that it has dealt “very serious blows” to his country’s 
sovereignty.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS